"Texas rig" type lures are extremely popular fishing equipment, particularly among bass fisherman. In the conventional Texas rig, a fishing hook, with a line attached thereto, is embedded in a plastic worm such that the eyelet of the hook is located toward the head and the point of the hook is located toward the tail of the worm. A lead weight sinker is used to assist in casting the hook and lure and in dropping these items toward the bottom of the water being fished. The fisherman then attracts the fish by flipping, jigging, reeling in or otherwise moving the line so that the plastic worm simulates the movement of a live worm.
Texas rigs have employed both slip and fixed sinkers. A slip sinker typically includes a groove or channel that permits it to slide along the line, whereas a fixed sinker is fixedly attached to the lure or line. Unfortunately, most known slip and fixed sinkers have exhibited a number of disadvantages. Traditional slip sinkers tend to fray the fishing line, although this problem has been remedied by the use the tubular plastic insert disclosed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,663, issued Mar. 17, 1987. In addition, slip sinkers are often ineffective for fishing through water covered by debris, such as weeds and water lilies. After it is cast, the fishing hook may become caught on such surface material and left behind as the sinker descends to the bottom.
Generally bullet-shaped fixed sinkers have been developed to reliably carry the lure to the bottom. Recently, such sinkers have been provided with coil springs and other means for securing them to the head of the plastic worm. In one known apparatus, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,586, a helical coil spring having a relatively narrow diameter extends axially from the sinker weight for screwing the weight onto the worm. A rigid plastic tube, which receives the fishing line, extends axially through the weight and through the spring to a location near the eyelet of the hook embedded in the worm. As a result, this device effectively secures the weight to the plastic worm. However, it often hinders proper setting of the hook. Following an apparent strike, when the fisherman pulls on the line to set the hook into the fish, the rigid insert and/or the spring tends to restrict the movement of the eyelet portion of the hook. As a result, the pointed portion of the hook may be unable to pierce fully through the worm and set in the fish. Moreover, this sinker does not dislodge or release from the worm after a fish strikes. Rather, its spring coil is screwed a considerable distance (at least eight turns) into the worm and the inner end of the spring is directly attached to the insert so that the spring has a conical shape. As a result, the sinker remains lodged in the worm even after the fish strikes and this may cause the line to which this sinker is attached to break as the fish is reeled in by the fisherman. In addition, such fixed sinkers do not provide nearly as satisfactory a feel as is provided by slip sinkers.